Café Sperl, Vienna

Café Sperl is a Viennese coffeehouse at the corner of Gumpendorfer Straße and Lehargasse, in Mariahilf. Its interior preserves the atmosphere of an elegant Ringstraße café: parquet underfoot, marble tables, Thonet chairs, crystal lighting and carambole billiards tables. Wilhelm Jelinek and Anton Groß created this setting.

Jacob Ronacher opened the business in 1880, and the Sperl family took it over later that decade, giving it its present name. Before World War I, writers, painters, architects, composers, performers and officers from the nearby military academy all gathered here. The café also hosted the Hagenbund’s regular table for decades, while a group including Josef Hoffmann and Koloman Moser met here before helping establish the Vienna Secession. In 1998 it received the title Austrian Café of the Year, followed by the Goldene Kaffeebohne in 2004.